Description:
This report assesses relationships between private power development in India and environmental protection in that country. The central question is whether private firms generating and distributing electricity in developing countries will do a better or a worse job in environmental protection, as a part of their overall corporate responsibility, than public-sector institutions. After reviewing the fundamental question, why it is asked, and the context in which it operates in the nation of India, this report continues with an analysis of available information, quantitative and qualitative, that can help to resolve the issues in the particular case of India. Finally, it ends with conclusions from the analysis and recommendations for reducing remaining uncertainties in the future.

Description:
This report presents an assessment of what the ``obligation to serve`` might look like in a competitive electric industry. Broadly, this research has three objectives: to define the ``duty to serve`` of a competitive electric industry; to identify those companies to whom that duty applies; and to explain how that duty protects residual classes.

Description:
OAK-A258 Private Sector Initiative Between the U.S. and Japan. This report for calendar years 1993 through September 1998 describes efforts performed under the Private Sector Initiatives contract. The report also describes those efforts that have continued with private funding after being initiated under this contract. The development of a pyrochemical process, called TRUMP-S, for partitioning actinides from PUREX waste, is described in this report. This effort is funded by the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), KHI, the United States Department of Energy, and Boeing.

Description:
Utilities regulators can use a variety of approaches to calculate transition costs. We categorized these approaches along three dimensions. The first dimension is the use of administrative vs. market procedures to value the assets in question. Administrative approaches use analytical techniques to estimate transition costs. Market valuation relies on the purchase price of particular assets to determine their market values. The second dimension concerns when the valuation is done, either before or after the restructuring of the electricity industry. The third dimension concerns the level of detail involved in the valuation, what is often called top-down vs. bottom-up valuation. This paper discusses estimation approaches, criteria to assess estimation methods, specific approaches to estimating transition costs, factors that affect transition-cost estimates, strategies to address transition costs, who should pay transition costs, and the integration of cost recovery with competitive markets.

Description:
The purpose of this report was to review pertinent literature and studies that might reveal models capable of optimizing the siting, sizing and economic value of energy storage in the future smart grid infrastructure. Energy storage technology and utility system deployment have been subjects of intense research and development for over three decades. During this time, many models have been developed that consider energy storage implementation in the electric power industry and other applications. Nevertheless, this review of literature discovered no actual models and only a few software tools that relate specifically to the application environment and expected requirements of the evolving smart grid infrastructure. This report indicates the existing need for such a model and describes a pathway for developing it.

Description:
The U. S. electric power industry today is on the road to restructuring a road heretofore uncharted. While parallels can be drawn from similar journeys taken by the airline industry, the telecommunications industry, and, most recently, the natural gas industry, the electric power industry has its own unique set of critical issues that must be resolved along the way. The transition will be from a structure based on a vertically integrated and regulated monopoly to one equipped to function successfully in a competitive market. The long-standing traditional structure of the electric power industry is the result of a complex web of events that have been unfolding for over 100 years. Some of these events had far-reaching and widely publicized effects. Other major events took the form of legislation. Still other events had effects that are less obvious in comparison (e.g., the appearance of technologies such as transformers and steam and gas turbines, the invention of home appliances, the man-made fission of uranium), and it is likely that their significance in the history of the industry has been obscured by the passage of time. Nevertheless, they, too, hold a place in the underpinnings of today`s electric industry structure. The purpose of this report, which is intended for both lay and technical readers, is twofold. First, it is a basic reference document that provides a comprehensive delineation of the electric power industry and its traditional structure, which has been based upon its monopoly status. Second, it describes the industry`s transition to a competitive environment by providing a descriptive analysis of the factors that have contributed to the interest in a competitive market, proposed legislative and regulatory actions, and the steps being taken by the various components of the industry to meet the challenges of adapting to and prevailing in a competitive environment.

Description:
As the electric industry goes through a transformation to a more market-driven model, traditional grounds for utility energy efficiency have come under fire, undermining the existing mechanisms to fund and deliver such services. The challenge, then, is to understand why the electric industry should sustain investments in helping low-income Americans use electricity efficiently, how such investments should be made, and how these policies can become part of the new electric industry structure. This report analyzes the opportunities and barriers to leveraging electric utility energy efficiency assistance to low-income customers during the transition of the electric industry to greater competition.

Description:
The term ``transition costs`` describes the potential revenue shortfall (or welfare loss) a utility (or other actor) may experience through government-initiated deregulation of electricity generation. The potential for transition costs arises whenever a regulated industry is subject to competitive market forces as a result of explicit government action. Federal and state proposals to deregulate electricity generation sparked a national debate on transition costs in the electric-utility industry. Industry-wide transition cost estimates range from about $20 billion to $500 billion. Such disparate estimates raise important questions on estimation methods for decision makers. This report examines different approaches to estimating transition costs. The study has three objectives. First, we discuss the concept of transition cost. Second, we identify the major cost categories included in transition cost estimates and summarize the current debate on which specific costs are appropriately included in these estimates. Finally, we identify general and specific estimation approaches and assess their strengths and weaknesses. We relied primarily on the evidentiary records established at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission to identify major cost categories and specific estimation approaches. We also contacted regulatory commission staffs in ten states to ascertain estimation activities in each of these states. We refined a classification framework to describe and assess general estimation options. We subsequently developed and applied criteria to describe and assess specific estimation approaches proposed by federal regulators, state regulators, utilities, independent power companies, and consultants.

Description:
This report describes fourteen energy factors that could affect electricity markets in the future (demand, process, source mix, etc.). These fourteen factors are believed to have the most influence on the State� s energy environment. A base case, or most probable, characterization is given for each of these fourteen factors over a twenty year time horizon. The base case characterization is derived from quantitative and qualitative information provided by State of California government agencies, where possible. Federal government databases are nsed where needed to supplement the California data. It is envisioned that a initial selection of issue areas will be based upon an evaluation of them under base case conditions. For most of the fourteen factors, the report identities possible perturbations from base case values or assumptions that may be used to construct additional scenarios. Only those perturbations that are plausible and would have a significant effect on energy markets are included in the table. The fourteen factors and potential perturbations of the factors are listed in Table 1.1. These perturbations can be combined to generate internally consist.ent. combinations of perturbations relative to the base case. For example, a low natural gas price perturbation should be combined with a high natural gas demand perturbation. The factor perturbations are based upon alternative quantitative forecasts provided by other institutions (the Department of Energy - Energy Information Administration in some cases), changes in assumptions that drive the quantitative forecasts, or changes in assumptions about the structure of the California energy markets. The perturbations are intended to be used for a qualitative reexamination of issue areas after an initial evaluation under the base case. The perturbation information would be used as a �tiebreaker;� to make decisions regarding those issue areas that were marginally accepted or rejected under the base case. Hf a quantitative scoring ...

Description:
This report analyzes developments in the electric utility industry using the tools of transaction cost economics. During the last thirty years, the tools of economic analysis have been substantially expanded--notably, Oliver Williamson, building on the insights of Coase and others, has made significant contributions through his work in developing the new institutional economics, of which transaction cost economics reasoning plays a major role. Because of the relevance of the new institutional economics to public utilities and public utility regulation, the theoretical insights of the new institutional economics have been applied to many aspects of public utility industry structure, governance, and regulation. The contributions of Joskow and Schmalensee are most notable, but many other economists have made theoretical and empirical contributions. These insights are very applicable to the issues that policymakers and regulators are likely to address as electric restructuring progresses. The goal of this report is to synthesize the theoretical work on the new institutional economics with the recent developments in the electric utility industry--most notably, the rapid trend toward competition in electric generation, both in the US and abroad. Transaction-cost-economics reasoning provides an analytical structure for understanding the implications of asset specificity, asymmetric and imperfect information, reputation effects, ex ante contracting costs, ex post contract maladaption issues, and issues that arise because contracts are incomplete. The insights that transaction cost economics can provide are very timely to the debates currently going on with respect to electric restructuring issues.

Description:
Restructuring the US electricity industry has become the nation`s central energy issue for the 1990s. Restructuring proposals at the federal and state levels focus on more competitive market structures for generation and the integration of transmission within those structures. The proposed move to more competitive generation markets will expose utility costs that are above those experienced by alternative suppliers. Debate about these above-market, or transition, costs (e.g., their size,who will pay for them and how) has played a prominent role in restructuring proceedings. This paper presents results from a project to systematically assess strategies to address transition costs exposed by restructuring the electricity industry.

Description:
Transition costs are the potential monetary losses that electric- utility shareholders, ratepayers, or other parties might experience because of structural changes in the electricity industry. Regulators, policy analysts, utilities, and consumer groups have proposed a number of strategies to address transition costs, such as immediately opening retail electricity markets or delaying retail competition. This report has 3 objectives: identify a wide range of strategies available to regulators and utilities; systematically examine effects of strategies; and identify potentially promising strategies that may provide benefits to more than one set of stakeholders. The many individual strategies are grouped into 6 major categories: market actions, depreciation options, rate-making actions, utility cost reductions, tax measures, and other options. Of the 34 individual strategies, retail ratepayers have primary or secondary responsibility for paying transition costs in 19 of the strategies, shareholders in 12, wheeling customers in 11, taxpayers in 8, and nonutility suppliers in 4. Most of the strategies shift costs among different segments of the economy, although utility cost reductions can be used to offset transition costs. Most of the strategies require cooperation of other parties, including regulators, to be implemented successfully; financial stakeholders must be engages in negotiations that hold the promise of shared benefits. Only by rejecting ``winner-take-all`` strategies will the transition-cost issue be expeditiously resolved.

Description:
Open access to the transmission system, if provided at reasonable costs, should open new electricity markets for high-quality renewable resources that are located far from load centers. Several factors will affect the cost of transmission service, including the type of transmission pricing system implemented and the specific attributes of renewable energy. One crucial variable in the transmission cost equation is a generator`s capacity factor. This factor is important for intermittent renewables such as wind and solar, because it can increase transmission costs several fold due to the traditional use of take-or-pay, capacity-based transmission access charges. This report argues that such a charge is demonstrably unfair to renewable generators. It puts them at an economic disadvantage that will lead to an undersupply of renewable energy compared with the least-cost mix of generation technologies. The authors argue that congestion charges must first be separated from the access charges that cover the fixed cost of the network before one can design an efficient tariff. They then show that, in a competitive market with a separate charge for congestion, a take-or-pay capacity-based access charge used to cover system fixed costs cannot be justified on the basis of peak-load pricing. An energy-based access charge, on the other hand, is fair to intermittent generators as well as to the usual spectrum of peak and base-load technologies. This report also reviews other specific characteristics of renewables that can affect the cost of transmission, and evaluates the potential impact on renewables of several transmission pricing schemes, including postage-stamp rates, megawatt-mile pricing, congestion pricing, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission`s {open_quotes}point-to-point{close_quotes} transmission tariffs.

Description:
Australia`s electric power industry (EPI) is undergoing major restructuring. This restructuring includes commercialization of state-owned electric organization through privatization and through corporatization into separate governmental business units; structural unbundling of generation, transmission, retailing, and distribution; and creation of a National Electricity Market (NEM) organized as a centralized, market-based trading pool for buying and selling electricity. The principal rationales for change in the EPI were the related needs of enhancing international competitiveness, improving productivity, and lowering electric rates. Reducing public debt through privatization also played an important role. Reforms in the EPI are part of the overall economic reform package that is being implemented in Australia. Enhancing efficiency in the economy through competition is a key objective of the reforms. As the need for reform was being discussed in the early 1990s, Australia`s previous prime minister, Paul Keating, observed that {open_quotes}the engine which drives efficiency is free and open competition.{close_quotes} The optimism about the economic benefits of the full package of reforms across the different sectors of the economy, including the electricity industry, is reflected in estimated benefits of a 5.5 percent annual increase in real gross domestic product and the creation of 30,000 more jobs. The largest source of the benefits (estimated at 25 percent of total benefits) was projected to come from reform of the electricity and gas sectors.

Description:
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission`s (FERC) Order 888 is perhaps the most important and far reaching FERC electricity order in decades. The consequences on the structure of the industry and how the industry is regulated are significant departures from past methods and regulatory philosophy. This will undoubtedly have a dramatic impact on the manner in which state public utility commissions, which are also undergoing or considering dramatic change, regulate their jurisdictional electric utilities. This report summarizes and discusses the actions that the FERC is taking and their profound repercussions on the industry and state commissions. The report is not a comprehensive summary of the entire order. Rather, it is intended to highlight the order`s more important features and discuss what this could mean for the states. The report is organized into eight sections; the first seven address Order 888 and the last section (section 8) addresses Order 889. Section 1 through 5 summarize and discuss the main features of Order 888. Section 6 (on jurisdiction) and Section 7 (on property rights) interpret the likely consequences of the order. Section 8, summarizes the FERC`s Open Access Same Time System (OASIS) and discusses some concerns about its real-world application.

Description:
This document presents a summary of electric power industry statistics. Data are included on electric utility retail sales of electricity, revenues, environmental information, power transactions, emissions, and demand-side management.

Description:
This report summarizes information and numerical data describing the current and projected structure of the power industry in Hong Kong. Major economic trends are briefly analyzed by examining main indicators of the national economy and the current energy consumption and mix. Data and information provided describing the existing power industry structure include a discussion of energy policy, installed capacity, electricity generation and fuel consumption, transmission and distribution system capability, technology, electricity consumption, and electricity tariffs. Projections of Hong Kong`s power industry are made based on data provided, which includes peak load, gross generation, and electricity consumption by sector; installed capacity by fuel, and electricity generation by fuel and fuel consumption. 12 tabs.

Description:
In April 1997, a panel of experts representing private sector electricity companies met to identify emerging critical issues in the electricity sector and to ascertain how technology can help with these issues. Sandia National laboratories sponsored and conducted the meeting. The panel determined the top eight issues that will be critically important over the next five to ten years, when the electricity sector is expected to undergo a major transition in its market and the regulations that govern it. This report presents a discussion of the selection and ranking of critical issues identified by the panel and the research priorities that were identified.

Description:
This report identifies both the low-income energy services historically provided in the electricity industry and those services that may be affected by industry restructuring. It identifies policies that are being proposed or could be developed to address low- income electricity services in a restructured industry. It discusses potential federal policy options and identifies key policy and implementation issues that arise when considering these potential federal initiatives. To understand recent policy development at the state level, we reviewed restructuring proposals from eight states and the accompanying testimony and comments filed in restructuring proceedings in these states.

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